Mexico's Pemex seeks to buy stake in Spanish shipyard

Redacción de Reuters

1 MIN. DE LECTURA

MEXICO CITY, May 1 (Reuters) - Mexico's Pemex on Wednesday said it is seeking to take a controling stake in a Spanish shipyard with a view to building specialized tankers for the state oil monopoly, as well as to help speed up the modernization of Pemex's fleet.

Pemex said it had signed a letter of intent to acquire a 51 percent stake in Hijos de J. Barreras (HJB), a shipyard on the Atlantic Ocean that is in the process of exiting bankruptcy proceedings.

The Mexican oil company, along with the shipyard's three existing shareholders, plan to invest 10 billion euros as part of the agreement, Pemex said in a statement.

Mexico is the world's No. 7 oil producer and a major exporter to the United States, but has to import nearly half of its gasoline due to a lack of domestic refining capacity.

Mexico's government relies heavily on oil revenues which fund around a third of the federal budget.